More!: Encouraging those who love the Bible to experience the promised power of the Spirit

By Roc Bottomly

As you compare your story with those in the Bible, do you sense there should be more to your life with God than you are experiencing? Do you sense something is missing? Do you sense God seems more distant and life more powerless than what is promised? If so, you are one of many.

To protect ourselves from the errors and excesses that often

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Feb 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781640885868

Book preview

This book will challenge, but it will also encourage as you see the possibility that walking with the Lord Jesus includes intimacy and power through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

- Alan Andrews

Former U.S. Director, The Navigators

Roc Bottomly’s journey and understanding of the vital blend of God’s Word and God’s Spirit will inspire each of us who long to know and serve Jesus Christ with all our heart, mind, and strength.

- Paul Stanley

Former International Vice President of The Navigators, Co-author of Connecting

"Roc Bottomly has been learning how to build bridges from the Word to the Spirit for twenty-five years, and he knows what the body of Christ can experience when we are unified and not concerned with labels. More! is a practical guide to understanding how God is uniting His family."

- Kent Humphreys

Author of Show and Tell and Lasting Investments

Anyone who is honestly seeking to see how the Father’s Word and the Holy Spirit’s work coexist and complement each other will be enthralled by this spiritual page-turner. Roc’s love of God’s Word has led him to honestly view the Holy Spirit’s work in a way that is much needed and clearly shared in this hallmark work.

- Tom Phillips

Author of Revival Signs and Ignite Your Passion for God

At last! A book that practically and biblically shows believers how they can know the piercing power that comes when the Word and the Spirit flow together. Bravo, Roc, for your candor and for the challenge to press forward until we personally experience the promised power.

- Lorraine Pintus

Co-author of Intimate Issues and Gift-Wrapped by God

"More! is a delightfully engaging companion for a journey of discovery that is as wondrous as it is perilous."

-Ken Gire

Author of Windows of the Soul and Moments with the Savior

DEDICATION

New wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better."

Luke 5:38-39

To John and Jan Bingaman — consummate new wineskins. You have tasted the old and the new and have never said, The old is better.

Thanks for being my periscope into the strange and wonderful world of the Spirit church.

Thanks for modeling truth and power with such grace and maturity. Thanks for enduring the birth pangs of continuous renewal.

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

Contents

DEDICATION 7

CONTENTS 9

STUDY GUIDE CONTENTS 11

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 13

PREFACE 15

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION 21

INTRODUCTION 25

CHAPTER 1: A Whole New Floor 29

CHAPTER 2: Filling the Void 37

CHAPTER 3: Big Questions 45

CHAPTER 4: Patterns of Missing Pieces 57

CHAPTER 5: Awakening 69

CHAPTER 6: Choosing Your Wineskin 81

CHAPTER 7: New Territory 93

CHAPTER 8: The Wall Is Coming Down 107

CHAPTER 9: Completing the Picture 125

CHAPER 10: The Purpose of Passion 137

CHAPTER 11: The Value of Experience 149

CHAPTER 12: The Secret’s Out 167

EPILOGUE. MORE – AND STILL MORE 181

STUDY GUIDE 185

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 213

NOTES 215

STUDY GUIDE CONTENTS

For each of the twelve chapters, there is an opportunity for Searching the Scriptures in the often-unexplored area of the Holy Spirit. As you work through this study, you will look at many of the important passages in both the Old and New Testaments that teach us about the Spirit — who He is and how He helps.

Who He Is186

His Power in the Old Testament188

Promises in the Old Testament189

In Jesus’ Life and Ministry191

In the Early Church193

Rebirth: When the Spirit Comes In195

His Promised Power197

His Continuous Filling200

His Dramatic Filling201

His Gifts204

His Gifts (continued) 206

How Should We Respond to Him? 209

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Like so many books, this one had a long gestation period. In this case, it was twenty-four years. And like many other books, the knitting together in the womb involved a lot of people, most of whom have no idea how formative they were.

John and Jan Bingaman: You’ve been telling me how to pour new wine into old wineskins from the beginning. Our first conversation started with John saying, Now, Roc, we know you are new here (I’d been pastor at Covenant Community Church for about 10 days), and we’d like to suggest a few changes that would make things a lot better. And so it’s been for the past twenty-four years! Best friends. Fellow laborers. Co-pastors. Obsessive seekers of God. Willing to learn and do anything that might give a clearer view of the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit — at absolutely any cost. And what a high price you have paid. Giant thanks. I’d never have gone beyond talking about the possibilities without you.

The people and elders at Covenant Community Church: You were my first congregation and for ten years absorbed all the mistakes of my rookie ministry. When it comes to loving one another, you do it better than any I’ve seen. Thanks for enduring my first awkward steps in the things of the Spirit and loving me anyway. Special thanks to Jack and Jodie Hough. Your lives of prayer and listening to the Spirit taught Bev and me early on that God is very near.

The people and elders at Pulpit Rock Church: Thanks for giving me the courage to try new things — a conference on spiritual warfare (before it was considered safe); new music and freedom in worship (always high risk); healing prayer teams in the worship services (radical at the time); a listening prayer ministry (did we really allow this?); elders anointing with oil and praying for the sick (at a respected Bible church). You opened the door for God to work as far and as fast as He could without ripping the communal fabric. Thanks for opening the gates — and, when needed, applying the brakes. Thanks to Joanie Thompson, who persevered in listening for the Spirit’s voice and using His healing power before we had the vocabulary to make it respectable. Special thanks to Steve and Bonnie Aldrich, whose years on the mission field and personal encounters with God gave us permission to expect more from Him than we’d seen before. What a great church!

The people and elders at Bridgeway Church: What incredibly happy and courageous pioneers! Do you people have no fear? How rare to combine passionate devotion and bold exploration in one religious body. But you have done it and in the process provided far more than a book. You have provided a community that is doing this stuff. You have given all a place to visit to see a Word-Spirit church in action. Special thanks to The Group of high school and college students (all 25 years older and most married with kids and a hefty mortgage), who provided the zeal, energy, and push to birth Bridgeway: Al and Melissa King, Justin and Tiffany Fuller, Steve and Becky Hartman, and the rest of you who packed into the Bingaman’s basement to worship and experience God’s surprising presence. Thanks to Tom and Pam Ball, David and Myrna Lightfoot, Robert and Becky Gilbert, John and Kathy Phillips, Kathleen Blue, Kay Zahasky, and so many others who risked friendships and respectability to help give adult leadership to this highly suspect venture. Thanks to Charlie Hall, Brad Kilman, and Nathan and Christie Nockles, who led worship with such magnetic heart and skill. Let’s face it: Most came in the early days of Bridgeway for your music and the hope it gave that God would come and do what He promised in His Book.

Finally, thanks to my precious wife, who believed enough in the message of this book to pay the high price of many unwanted times alone to see it finished. Pooh, we’re done, and I’m coming home!

PREFACE

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Colossians 3:16

Be filled with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18

About What’s Going On

Something wonderful is happening. There is a happy reunion in progress. It’s a family reunion among those who love God. It’s a reunion of those who have faithfully loved God’s truth with those that have faithfully embraced his power. It’s a reunion of Word and Spirit. And for all involved, there is great reason to celebrate as they embrace newfound family and discover missing pieces of life with God that have long been hidden among those on the other side.

About You

Considering that you’ve picked up this book, you are probably already part of this reunion. And you are not alone. The latest research reports that in recent, more than fifty million believers have become part of the mainstream church renewal,¹ the technical term for what happens when evangelicals personally experience the promised power of the Holy Spirit— the power they have seen so clearly in the Bible they have faithfully read for years.

Chances are that you are personally experiencing a paradigm shift in the area of the promised power of the Spirit. Something unsettling has happened in your life — or in the life of your husband, wife, friend, or pastor.

You (or they) are probably somewhere in the process of discovering that God has provided us with two supernatural resources of staggering value: His Word and His Spirit. Of course, you have loved the Bible and the Holy Spirit for as long as you have followed God, but you are awakening to the possibility that there is a lot more to one of these — either Word or Spirit — than you ever imagined.

You may be a Word person who is discovering new ministries of the Spirit, or you may be a Spirit person who is discovering the new life that comes from understanding and living the Bible. You have somehow wandered through a gap in the wall that has for decades separated God-loving people into two neighborhoods: those who know the Bible and those who know the Spirit. Somehow you have met someone or heard or experienced something from the other side. If that’s true, you are probably feeling amazed, confused, frightened, and excited. You may be unsure what to think, how to feel, who to tell, or what to do.

If this is you, intended or not and like it or not, you are part of a reunion arranged at the Highest Level. You are part of the reunion of Word and Spirit.

And this book is for you.

About Me

Since 1990, I have lived in the midst of this reunion. I stumbled into it quite by accident. It began for me with an exposure to intimate worship. Worship stirred an all-my-heart desire for God. New passion for God led to new compassion for people. Compassion for people led to a longing for the power to help them. The longing for power led to the Spirit, then to people who knew the Spirit, back to the Word to find out what the Spirit does and how to allow Him to do it in and through me, and finally back to real life to see what really works. And so it’s gone for me.

In the course of all of this, I have pastored four churches through the Word- Spirit union with results ranging from dismal failure to significant progress. I know firsthand that the process stretches people to the limits. It has stretched me intellectually. I’m an engineer by training, unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the mysterious. It has stretched me emotionally. Passion and affection scare me. It has stretched me relationally. I’ve gained and lost friends in the process. It has stretched me theologically. Hearing His voice, feeling His presence, performing healing prayer, believing in angels and demons — my initial reaction was, You’ve got to be kidding! I have struggled to understand, believe, explain, sell, and keep the peace — in the church, in my family, and in my own soul. Yet after twenty-five years of watching this Word-Spirit union transform lives, I am left with the conclusion that the benefits far outweigh the strains and that God Himself is behind this happy reunion. God Himself is restoring the power of the Spirit to those who for a variety of reasons have lost it along the way but are willing to receive it.

About This Book

This book is designed to be read with Bible in hand and preferably with a like-hearted friend or group of friends. The Promised Power refers to the power of the Holy Spirit promised in the Scriptures. The best way to see these promises yourself is to search the Scriptures on your own.

To help you with this process, there is a study guide in the back of the book that provides a thorough Bible study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit (see the Searching the Scriptures section in the study guide that corresponds to each chapter in the book). To help you talk through what you are seeing in the Bible and experiencing in your life, the study guide also contains a Sharing Your Life section for each chapter of the book. These questions are excellent for guiding discussion with a friend or small group of fellow explorers.

Because the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit may represent both mysterious and unexplored territory, it is vital that you take the time to study the Scriptures for yourself. Your firsthand study will give you the firm convictions you’ll need to make life changes. Companions in the process will provide needed balance and confidence.

An Invitation

If you are experiencing the union of Word and Spirit — if God is adding the mysterious working of the Spirit to your heritage in the Bible, or if He’s adding the treasure of Scripture to your experience with the Spirit — this book should be helpful to you. It is not a technical defense of either the inspiration of Scripture or the power of the Spirit. Others have provided outstanding scholarly support for both of these from biblical, theological, and historical perspectives. My purpose is to provide a pastor’s perspective. As one who has experienced the life-breathing effects of the Word-Spirit union in my own life, I want to:

celebrate what God is doing in yourlife.

affirm that you are on the right track in pursuing the benefits of both Word and Spirit to the full limits promised in theScriptures.

encourage you to continue to learn from the otherside.

guide you with some practical direction to keep your exploring responsible andfruitful.

Welcome to the union of Word and Spirit. It is not the panacea to all the pain of life. It will not answer all the questions, end all the groaning, heal all the diseases, or shield from all the injustices. These will come with the final union of the Groom and His bride. But this present union will provide fresh intimacy, zeal, and progress to all who join in.

So for all who have started down the Word-Spirit path, read on and keep coming!

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

This is the third edition of this book. In the fourteen years since the first edition, things have changed.

For the Church corporately, many more churches and individuals are embracing a life with God that expects more of the experience and power promised in the Scriptures. New leaders like Matt Chandler (Village Church, Dallas), Sam Storms (Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City), Jimmy Seibert (Antioch Church, Waco), and Francis Chan (We Are Church, San Francisco) have been calling Bible-loving evangelicals to a far more robust life in the Spirit. Emerging movements like Acts 29, YWAM, Antioch Ministries International, Hillsong International, and Bethel Ministries – though different in specifics and still working out the details of doctrine and practice - are together providing training, worship, leadership and ministry experience to expose and equip thousands for a more biblically empowered life with Jesus. The fruit of these leaders, churches and movements is a new generation of impassioned disciples devoted to magnifying God’s glory in their worship, fulfilling the Great Commission, and bringing the peace of the Kingdom to their worlds.

In short, in the last fourteen years the circle of those pursuing and experiencing the promised power of the Holy Spirit has grown